Pegg on Doohan

Simon Pegg would have loved to have met James Doohan, but more for old stories rather than advice on how to play the engineer.

As reported by TrekMovie.com, not having Doohan around is a loss for the man who is reprising the Scotty role. "I probably would have just wanted to hear some on-set stories," said Pegg. "I think it would have been funny to have heard about what went on back in the day, and share some reminiscences with him. I'm sure things would have come up in conversation. When you sit down with somebody's who's played the character like that for so long, you're going to get some kind of insight. It's a tragedy that he's gone anyway, but it's also a shame that I didn't get to speak to him."

Working with J.J. Abrams means working with someone who actually "gets" Star Trek. "In terms of working with J.J., he's a very enthusiastic and really clever director," said Pegg. "He really understands the show. He's extremely thorough when it comes to the show, and extremely faithful to it. He loves it, and I think that's very important."

Pegg himself is a fan of Star Trek and aware of the importance of getting Star Trek XI right. "There's a lot to live up to," he explained. "We're very aware of the magnitude of what it is. It's a big responsibility. It's not the Starsky and Hutch film, some sort of cod nostalgia parody hokum. It really is genuinely a serious movie. It has elements of light-heartedness like all the Star Trek movies do, but there's a lot of wonderful things which I think the Trek fans will get a lot of kicks out of, just the familiarity. There's a lot of stuff in there for people who know the show."